Pottsgrove preliminary budget would raise taxes 2.2%

LOWER POTTSGROVE — Although it took three different attempts, the Pottsgrove School Board managed to adopt a $61.5 million preliminary final budget Tuesday night that would raise property taxes by 2.2 percent, or $95 for the average household.

With board members Michael Neiffer and Jodi Adams absent, the divided board had difficulty mustering the five votes required by law for the adoption of a preliminary final budget.

First, a motion to adopt a $61.7 million budget, which would have raised taxes by 2.89 percent, failed when only School Board President Scott Fulmer, and members Nancy Landes and Justin Valentine voted in favor of it.

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Then, a motion to adopt a $61.5 million budget raising taxes by 2.2 percent received four votes — from School Board Vice President David Faulkner and members Patti Grimm, Diane Cherico, Ted Coffelt.

However, Board Solicitor Marc Davis explained that the law requires five affirmative votes on budget passage.

Landes then made a motion to adopt the budget with the lower tax hike, and it was adopted by the board unanimously.

The budget does not become truly final until June 28, and the board has until then to make adjustments.

Business Manager David Nester told the board that bringing the proposed tax hike down from 2.89 percent to 2.2 percent — the tax increase allowed under the state’s Act 1 index — could be accomplished with “two minor adjustments,” including using $224,000 in savings from a bond re-financing to pay for additional security cameras in district buildings.

However, Fulmer advocated instead paying for those cameras from the higher tax rate rather than the one-time savings, putting those savings instead into capital reserves.

The higher rate would have increased taxes for the owner of the average district property, assessed at $120,000, by about $128, as opposed to the $95 increase under the budget with the 2.2 percent increase.

“For thirty bucks, we could ensure a lot more kids’ safety,” Fulmer said. “You can’t put a price on safety,” he said, garnering agreement from Landes.

“I’m not in agreement with Scott on this,” said Faulkner, who asked Nester how much money the district has in its capital reserve.

The answer, said Nester, is “just shy of $7 million.”

Nester warned against dipping into that fund when a high school renovation project looms on the horizon and other buildings may need more expensive work in the next 12 to 13 years while the financing for the high school project is being paid off.

But Coffelt, Cherico, Faulkner and Grimm apparently did not consider the risk to be too great.

The preliminary final budget officially calls for spending $61,478,099 and would raise the district’s property tax millage by 36.7705 mills.

The vote had to be made Tuesday night, Nester said, in order to meet the state deadline of adopting a final budget by June 30 and advertising it for 30 days prior.

Although it was on the agenda for the May 14 meeting, one week before the primary election, the school board declined to adopt the proposed preliminary final budget then because it hoped for more information from the state about what Pennsylvania’s final education budget would look like.

It was not evident Tuesday night that any new information about the state budget. The budget adopted Tuesday night continues to use the $16.5 million contribution from the state contained in Gov. Tom Corbett’s budget plan released in February.

It was also at the May 14 meeting that Neiffer asked Nester to come back to the board with a budget that only raised taxes by 2.2 percent.